Power Artist: Mitja Briscak

As a young boy, Mitja Briščak sat transfixed watching  Jumanji, Jurrasic Park, Toy Story, and other CG blockbuster movies. His passion for feature film animation intensified when he came across a computer magazine that gave him a behind-the-scenes look at how CG movies are made, including 3D character rigging, modeling, wire removal and other magic tricks of animation. He was hooked. Today he creates architectural visualization with LightWave 3D while holding to his dream of working in a large studio one day.

The “Unsung Heroes” of Character Animation

When you think of the movie capitals of the world, Cape Town, South Africa probably doesn’t come to mind. But that doesn’t stop Character Matters Animation Studios, a Cape Town-based character animation boutique with enormous talent and high aspirations that are achieved using LightWave. When the small but mighty shop isn’t working on bread-and-butter work—like the commercials and feature films that sustain them—they’re toiling away on their own original creative works with the hopes of turning sweat equity for passion projects into feature films worldwide.

Welcome to Gate54

Great artists are often heralded for their distinctive signature styles and Artist Neil Maccormack is no exception. His medium is a 3D canvas on which he creates visually expansive, futuristic sci-fi worlds and fantastical moments. Maccormack brings his visually rich imagination to life with the help of LightWave 3D, which allows him to work much like a fine artist.

FX Animation Barcelona Inspires Artisty

Xes Vilà, founder and school director of FX Animation, Barcelona, is passionate about his school, its students and the incredible CG they continue to create with LightWave 3D software. Not only is Vilà the school founder, he is also a longtime LightWave artist who first encountered the software on the Amiga. Now he utilizes the many new features in LightWave 11 on a regular basis. In this Q&A learn how FX Animation helps students become incredible 3D artists.

Mission to Mars with NASA’s Curiosity

NASA’s latest Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), Curiosity, completed the cruise phase of its journey between Earth and Mars, landing on the red planet in August of 2012. But prior to the historic touchdown, the public was able to watch the latest Mars rover perform its detailed mission months in advance of the MSL spacecraft landing via an awe-inspiring short animated film created with LightWave 3D at Bohemian Grey Inc.

Japanese Studio Profile: SUNRISE INC. 

Japan-based SUNRISE Inc. certainly knows how to keep an audience entertained with award-winning movies and animated shorts that couple the art of traditional anime with 21^st century CG technology. In this Q&A, learn how Animation Director Shuhei Morita and Manager Kiyohiko Takayama of SUNRISE have integrated LightWave into the studio’s production pipeline to help meet the studio’s tight deadline and deliver anime that really entertains.

Honoring Splinegod

The Lightwave community recently lost one of its all-time greats—Larry Schultz, aka Splinegod. Not only was Larry an artist, teacher, motivator and friend to many in the community, including the LightWave 3D team, he was a LightWave legend. To honor the incredible work Larry did for everyone in the community, we encourage you to visit his Splinegod YouTube Channel and peruse the many LightWave videos he created for the entire community. We can’t thank you enough Splinegod. Your legacy lives on.

Putting on the Crush

Creating a tutorial with tools and techniques that can be applied to other projects is always a challenge. However, Larry Schultz (aka Splinegod) found a thread in the LightWave forum from an artist looking for a way to animate the crushing of a can. Larry jumped in to help out to show how to create this type of animation using several segments, rather than a simple cylinder to allow the areas of the can to bulge and dent from the crushing force.

db&w Goes XXL for December

Ready to bundle up? db&w finest plugins is offering two seriously powerful bundles for LightWave that you won’t want to miss. The XXL bundle (priced at 349 Euros) includes four plugins—InfiniMap EXR, exrTrader, shaderMeister and frameD. The XL bundle (priced at 149 Euros) includes exrTrader, shaderMeister and framed. The plugins are available for both Window and OSX 32- and 64-bit. Don’t wait! Offer ends December 31, 2012.